She continues, "I had to leave that situation and come into my own again and I did."

However, Hough is not letting her past hold her back and is instead using her experiences to help dig into her new role for the film Safe Haven.

"Being Katie, I relate a lot to her," she says. "The fact that she had been in one situation that just sucked the life out of her, and it was a bad situation, and she needed to change and move on and kind of find her own again. And through that you find love and everything."